


A Piano in the Woods

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Drama, Episode: s09e01-02 Avalon, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-01
Updated: 2008-12-01
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11856048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: Vala kidnaps Daniel. Again.





	A Piano in the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Daniel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He made a mental note to have Dr. Lam check his blood pressure. It couldn’t be good to get this irritated, this often. He tried very hard to keep his tone even. “Where are we?” Daniel opened his eyes and looked at the piano that was sitting in the middle of the small clearing, surrounded by dense forest. He really didn’t want to ask about that, but he thought it might be something he should know.

“I believe you call it Massachusetts.” Vala ran a hand along the keyboard. “Still in tune. I was concerned the Asgard beam technology might affect it. Serenade me, Daniel…” Vala folded her arms on the top of the piano and smiled, tilting her head.

“Why did we take the Prometheus to Washington? Let’s summarize...” Daniel crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Because we were in a hurry—I know that, but Daniel, we can’t possibly be ready to leave the planet until tomorrow. The General said so. It took forever to convince those fusty old sticks at your Pentagon that the mission was worth the risk. There’s no reason that we can’t take a little break and have some fun on our way home.”

Daniel looked down at the bracelet that tied him to Vala’s proximity on pain of death and gritted his teeth. “So you beamed me down here, after beaming in… a piano, to—”

“Have a lovely picnic.” She lifted a pack from behind the piano and placed it on top. “I brought snacks! Come on, Daniel, we have to eat, why not here?” She looked very pleased with herself as she started rummaging through the bag.

“Because the Prometheus is leaving us behind, unless you convinced the captain and crew to just wait around so we can have a picnic! We have to go back right now—did you even bring a radio? No. No, I don’t imagine you did. That would defeat the purpose.” Daniel threw his hands in the air and stalked across the clearing. “They’ll be back for us soon. They’ll notice that you used the Asgard beam, unless… He swung back to face her. “What did you do?” 

“I didn’t do anything, Daniel, other than go to considerable effort to make this excursion possible. I really think that you could show a little more appreciation—” 

“Appreciation…?” How could she not see how selfish this was, why it was such a very bad idea? “We weren’t just there to get permission to acquire technology on a high risk mission. We were there to get the resources to evacuate those people before their planet becomes completely uninhabitable! There is no time for picnics...” He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “There will be no serenading. No snacks. No piano—I don’t even play…”

“You worry too much. We’ll be there in plenty of time. It’s not like this will make any real difference—they still have to assemble all those resources you just got permission to take.” Vala crossed the clearing, a wide smile on her face, and pressed an apple into his hand. “Just live a little, Daniel. You might enjoy it. What’s the harm?” 

His eyebrows rose as he looked at the apple in his hand. He put his glasses back on. “You really have to start reading more about our cultural references. This is not as reassuring as you might think.” Taking her hand, Daniel put the apple back as firmly as she had pressed it into his hand.

“I know where you got the food. What about the piano?” 

“I put a locator on it while we were at the Pentagon.”

“You stole a piano from the Pentagon? That’s not good…” He walked over to it and touched a key lightly, the soft note rising into the air. “This is quite creative, I’ll give you that—there is the problem of delaying a mission of vital importance, kidnapping and, of course, stealing the piano…” He put his hands in his pockets, and faced her. “Vala… I know you lost a lot… I know it was…” 

She turned her head away from him and gazed into the woods.

His forehead creased in a deep frown and his head dropped. The truth was, he should have talked to her about what had happened to her… About Qetesh… He couldn’t bring himself to do it. He didn’t want to know more than he already did. It was too close to what had happened to Sha’re–he still had nightmares about the few things she had told him on Abydos. Not often, not after all these years, but… He just didn’t want to know more. 

Daniel looked at the piano sitting incongruously in the center of the clearing. This wasn’t about a piano. It wasn’t about a picnic. He stepped back into her line of sight and looked at her. “We can’t really know what it was like, even if we have a better idea than most, but we want to help. We want to give you time to figure out what your options are, but things like… this…” Daniel waved an arm toward the piano. “And this…” He tapped the bracelet that he hoped desperately to remove from his wrist at some point. “Don’t work in your favor. If you put all that energy and creativity toward something more—”

A sly smile spread across Vala’s face. She stepped close and leaned even closer. “I can be energetic and creative in many ways, Daniel…Want to see?” She reached out a hand.

“No, I don’t!” He grabbed her shoulders and held her at arms length. “Stop that. Just… stop doing that. If you don’t want to talk about this, I can’t make you, but that’s… really annoying.” He let her go and stepped back.

Vala narrowed her eyes and the smile dropped from her face. 

Daniel couldn’t tell if he was getting through to her or not. Past experience didn’t make him hopeful. It was usually pretty easy to see what Vala was thinking, or feeling—except when she was lying, of course… She did that very well. Right now he had no idea if she was listening, if she was angry, if she understood what he was trying to say…

A strange sensation of both heat and cold started at his skin then moved through his body. The Asgard beam was forming around him—he saw the initial sparks of light. Grabbing Vala’s arm, he pulled her toward him so that the beam would pick up both of them—the device would be locked onto his locator beacon. He had no intention of inflicting Vala on Massachusetts. Then they were back on the Prometheus. 

“Are you alright, Doctor Jackson?” The young lieutenant at the controls of the Asgard beam was looking at him with some concern and a lurking smile. Oh, good…

Daniel nodded. “Yes. Thank you, lieutenant.” He gestured to an SF by the door. “Sorry to do this to you, but if you could escort Vala to her quarters… Don’t let her stop anywhere on the way. Don’t let her convince you to go inside her quarters. Don’t turn your back on her for any reason. Seriously, don’t.” 

“Daniel! Why so petty? I’ve been deprived of my picnic, the least you can do is take me to dinner.”

“No. We’ll be back at the SGC within the hour—you can eat there.”

“But, Daniel—” 

“No.”

“At least take me to my room yourself.”

“No.” He might have sympathy for her, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t making him crazy. Daniel raised an eyebrow and nodded to the SF. He didn’t let go of Vala’s arm until the man had taken her other and led her from the room. He knew that Vala could get away if she wanted—he was trying to make a point.

He was exhausted. He’d tried so hard to keep Vala out of trouble, but it hadn’t worked. It hadn’t done any good at all… At least this time she hadn’t questioned anyone’s manhood, and they’d gotten the backing they wanted. He would have stayed back at the SGC, but he’d been needed at the meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that meant Vala had to be there. The more he’d tried to stress the seriousness of the meeting, of the mission, the more difficult she’d become, and he didn’t know why. 

She was driving him insane… He needed her to let him finish this mission. He needed a break. He really, really needed to get this bracelet off. 

“Doctor Jackson? I’m picking up another locator beacon below. Shall I beam it aboard?”

“Hmmm?” Daniel registered the question, shook off his thoughts, and looked at the lieutenant. “Uh… No… No, just leave it there, it’s not… Just leave it.”

“Yes, sir.”

He thought about that piano and let out the grin that he’d been holding back since he’d seen it sitting in the middle of the woods. Vala probably had no idea how comical that was. She didn’t know what a great status symbol pianos had once been—that a piano in the parlor had meant that you were cultured and important. The irony of a piano, ready to play, and nowhere near people was wonderful. That and it just looked funny sitting there…

Maybe he needed to understand her better if he was going to help.

 

 

Daniel knocked on the door to Vala’s quarters. As it slid open, he saw that she was eating the apple. She really was hungry—he held out the MRE he had brought. “This should tide you over until we get back.”

She reached out and took it from him, then sat cross-legged on her bed, looking at the package in her hands.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he stepped into the room. “Vala—” 

“I’m sorry, Daniel.” She was still staring at the MRE.

His eyebrows went up. “What? You’re—”

“Sorry—that I kidnapped you again.” 

“Really? That’s… Thank you.”

“I’m not sorry I took the piano, though. I still think that was a good idea.”

The thought of that piano made him smile again. “Well… I kind of liked the piano, too.”

“You did?” Vala lifted her eyes, a slight smile crossing her face.

“But don’t take any more of them, okay? Or other musical instruments, or… anything, actually.”

There was a silence.

“Vala. This is where you promise to stop stealing things.”

“I don’t want to lie to you, Daniel. You should feel good about that. Lying to you didn’t used to bother me a bit.”

Damn. This had been going so well… “I guess that’s progress… some… but we’ll talk about that later." He moved forward and looked at her. “Vala, why did you do it—plan that whole thing?” 

She looked back at the MRE and started to open it. “You work all the time. If you aren’t working, then you’re trying to rescue every poor soul in the galaxy.”

“I like working. I like helping people.”

“Then why are you always frowning?”

“I’m not always frowning… Okay, I frown… but mostly, I’m just thinking.” 

“There’s not much smiling—not real smiling, and I’ve hardly ever heard you laugh.”

“I… Wait, you did this so I would have fun? Uh…what…” Daniel frowned, realized that he was frowning, and rubbed his forehead. “You… Well, the timing was really bad, and the plan was… flawed, but… thank you? I think…”

“Well spoken, Daniel—and that from a language expert.”

“I’m just… surprised.”

“Why? Aren’t you used to people doing nice things for you?”

Not that involved kidnapping and theft—but he didn’t say that. “I’m not opposed to picnics, per se… You just have to ask... not take.”

Vala was the one frowning now. She pursed her lips, put the MRE down carefully, and then looked at him again. “Would you like to have a picnic, Daniel?”

That wasn’t an easy step for Vala. They were getting somewhere—finally. He smiled. “Yes, Vala, after this mission, I would like to have a picnic…”

"But no piano."

"No, no piano."

“You liked the piano.”

“Well, it was funny, but it was wrong—so... No.”

“All this emphasis on right doesn’t seem to keep you out of trouble, Daniel.”

“I…” That was kind of true. “I just have to believe that it makes a difference—somehow… Because it makes a difference to me.”


End file.
